


Changeling Child

by benwisehart



Category: Original Work
Genre: Changelings, Faeries - Freeform, Gen, Grammatically Incorrect Ye Olde English, Thinly Veiled Autism Metaphors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 10:40:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20562938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/benwisehart/pseuds/benwisehart
Summary: Fairy Queen Alvinia L’mara Goldenshimmer’s daughter was a peculiar sort of child.





	Changeling Child

**Author's Note:**

> So this is something I threw together in about an hour for a writing club I'm in. I thought I'd post it here for fun. All mistakes are my own.

Fairy Queen Alvinia L’mara Goldenshimmer’s daughter was a peculiar sort of child. Most of the fairies knew better than to say this to her face, of course, but people talked. Fairies had little else to do, particularly during the winter months when the humans had better things to do than wander into rings of toadstools, or be cheated into giving away their true names. Something about their fragile mortal bodies being susceptible to frostbite. It didn’t sound like a real thing, but none of them knew enough about humans to argue the point.

Regardless, the Fairy Princess was an unusual girl. Fairy Queen Alvinia L’mara Goldenshimmer first noticed it when her daughter was one year old and she tried to tempt her into playing her favourite childhood game, Count The Seeds In The Garden. She seemed to be totally enrapt with banging a stick on the ground. 

“Verily,” said Fairy Queen Alvinia L’mara Goldenshimmer, “thee wilt formst a pile of seeds on one side…Then, and this is mine own fav’rite part, thou shalt take each seed and place it unto a second pile, whist remembering the number of seeds. There is no greater joy.”

“Goo goo ga ga,” replied the Fairy Princess, picking her nose.

Fairy Queen Alvinia sighed. It was alright. It wasn’t so unusual for a fairy to not love counting. Why, her own brother, Prince Morderon Helio Goldenshimmer the Fifth, had gone on to become an Art History major. Still, things only became stranger from there. 

When the Fairy Princess was five years old, her mother took her into the wilderness to see a fairy ring. 

“Seeth h’re, daughter mine,” said the Queen, “Thee must wait until a human loses their way and strays unto the circle, then step forward and ask for their name. Thine phrasing matters: ‘Pray, givest me thy name’, and not, ‘Pray, _tellst_ me thy name’, for you see, it is in _giving_ you their name that they will impart to thee the power to—”

“My name is Susan,” interrupted Fairy Princess Susan.

Queen Alvinia L’mara Goldenshimmer gave a strained sort of smile. “Thou dost not desire a more…traditional name? Titania, that is a lovely name. Or Nyphadora, I always hoped thee would choose Nyphadora.”

She considered this for a moment. “I also like Jennifer,” countered Fairy Princess Jennifer.

When Fairy Princess Jennifer was ten, the other children invited her to go and turn some adulterers into toads.

“No, thank you,” Jennifer said. “I’m actually building a baking soda volcano.”

The ringleader of the other children, a leprechaun named Bud Firesparkle, frowned curiously. “Bid me, I knoweth not of this ‘baking soda’.”

Jennifer showed it to him. “Oh, well, it’s a bit like salt. You use it in cooking and stuff.”

At the mention of salt, the other children scurried away in terror.

So people talked. _I heard she is right-handed. I heard she has a teddy bear. Yester-day, I saw her carrying a bucket made of iron. She’s a strange one, make no mistake. You don’t suppose she’s…human?_

_Nay, she is not human. Perhaps a bit dim, but she possesses great magical power. The other day she placed a silken kerchief into her fist, and lo, when she opened her hand it had vanished. No human could ever do that._

_Verily, she hides it within a rubber thumb. I hast seen it mine self. There is no magic involved at all, nay, simple misdirection. _

Jennifer never paid mind to this kind of talk. She knew the stories, of course…that sometimes humans would come by in the dead of night, stealing away a fairy child and replacing it with one of their own so that the child could be raised by the fair folk. To her, it seemed a silly thing to do, and in any case a rather pointless exercise to dwell upon it now. If anything, it sounded more like a strange story that a parent might invent to rationalise their child being different from what they expected.

When she was fifteen, her mother asked her about her fashion sense.

“They’re called jorts, mum,” Jennifer said, exasperated. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”

“But dearest,” said Fairy Queen Alvinia L’mara Goldenshimmer, “howst will thee ever pursue a respectable career if thou dost not dress appropriately? You could become a bridge keeper. Or guardian of a forest.”

“Well, maybe I don’t want to become a bridge keeper,” Jennifer replied. “Actually, I was thinking of studying law.”

“How can you say that!” cried Fairy Queen Alvinia, distraught. “Thou hast such a talent for riddles and wanderlust! Sooner or later thou must grow up and face reality. This is merely a phase.”

“This isn’t a phase, mum,” Jennifer shot back. “This is who I am.”


End file.
